Olive Ridley Sea Turtle - Economic Importance

Economic Importance

Historically, the olive ridley has been exploited for food, bait, oil, leather, and fertilizer. The meat is not considered a delicacy; the egg, however, is esteemed everywhere. Egg collection is illegal in most of the countries where olive ridleys nest, but these laws are rarely enforced. Harvesting eggs has the potential to contribute to local economies, and so the unique practice of allowing a sustainable (legal) egg harvest has been attempted in several localities 4.Numerous case studies have been conducted in regions of arribadas beaches to investigate and understand the socioeconomical, cultural, and political issues of egg collection. Of these, the legal egg harvest at Ostional, Costa Rica has been viewed by many as both biologically sustainable and economically viable4. Since egg collection became legal in 1987, local villagers have been able to harvest and sell approximately 3 million eggs annually. They are permitted to collect eggs during the first 36 hours the nesting period, as many of these eggs would be destroyed by later nesting females. Over 27 million eggs are left unharvested, and villagers have played a large role in protecting these nests from predators, thereby increasing hatching success1. Most participating households reported egg harvesting as their most important activity, and salaries earned were superior to other forms of available employment, other than tourism. The price of Ostional eggs was intentionally kept low to discourage illegal collection of eggs from other beaches4. The Ostional project retained more local profits than similar egg collection projects in Nicaragua4. However, one must consider the complexity of evaluating egg harvesting projects such as this, and realize that case studies can only provide a snapshot in time and also suffer from the site specificity of findings4. In most regions, illegal poaching of eggs is considered a major threat to olive ridley populations, and thus the practice of allowing legal egg harvests continues to attract criticism from conservationists and sea turtle biologists. Pamela Plotkin's Biology and Conservation of Ridley Sea Turtles, particularly the report from Lisa Campbell entitled Understanding Human Use of Olive Ridleys, provides further research on the Ostional Harvest (as well as other harvesting projects), while Scott Drucker's documentary, Between the Harvest, offers a glimpse into this world and the debate that surrounds it.